Nicholas co-heads the firm’s China antitrust, competition and trade law practice. He splits his time between Beijing, Hong Kong and London.
As well as having an active EU and UK competition law practice for which he is recognised as a leading practitioner by the legal directories, Nicholas’ work draws heavily on Asian competition law: he was based exclusively in Beijing between 2009 and 2011 at the inception of Chinese antitrust and merger control law, where he was managing partner of the firm’s Beijing office; he is one of the firm’s designated ‘country competition law partners’ for South Korea; and he has been involved with the firm’s Japan competition practice for the last 11 years. As well as working in Beijing, Hong Kong and London, Nicholas worked in the firm’s Brussels office for a number of years.
Nicholas has extensive experience of advising clients on a wide range of EU, UK and Asian competition issues across many industries, focussing on securing merger clearances for cross-border M&A transactions and joint ventures, providing guidance on alliances and co-operation arrangements and distribution networks, and defending companies in international price-fixing cartel investigations and dominance/ monopolisation inquiries.
Nicholas co-chairs the firm’s strategic China outbound investment group, which focuses on Chinese mainland- and Hong Kong-based companies investing out of the region. He also sits on the firm’s Korea outbound investment committee group.
Nicholas has spoken widely on competition issues, including most recently in Australia, China, Europe, Japan, Korea and North America. He features in Global Competition Review’s International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers; while in Beijing, he was ranked in Band 1 in Chambers Asia Leading Lawyers for Business Guide; and he is recognised as a ‘Leader in his Field’ by Chambers Legal Europe Directory.
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- Advising Air China on the formation of its air cargo airline joint venture with Cathay Pacific Airways, which involved co-ordination of Chinese and European merger clearance applications.
- Advising Diageo on its acquisition of Chinese spirits manufacturer Sichuan Chengdu Quanxing Group, which involved novel issues and required complex solutions to achieve Chinese merger clearance.
- Advising Geely Auto on its acquisition of Volvo Cars, including the co-ordination of its global merger filings for that transaction – one of the first very large private outbound deals from China into Europe.
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